Letter from Conrad Schramm to Joseph Weydemeyer, June 8, 1850

Author(s) Conrad Schramm
Written 8 January 1850


First published: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 27, Moscow, 1962
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38


To Joseph Weydemeyer in Frankfurt am Main

London, 8 January 1850

Dear Weydemeyer,

I am writing to you at the request of Marx, who is up to his eyes in work completing the first issue of the Revue. The Revue will be distributed through booksellers and besides, in larger cities, through agents. It will be printed, etc., in Hamburg and dispatched from there to the agents. The first issue will come out a bit late, but will be quickly followed by the next ones, so that the March issue will probably appear at the beginning of the month. If the Revue does at all well, it will appear twice a month. I would urge you to insert the announcement straight away,[1] even supposing the Kölnerin[2] has not yet had it. As regards your South German article,[3] Marx would like to have it as soon as possible for the February issue; the point is not so much to report the most up-to-date facts, which is not in any case feasible; it would be best, I think, to conclude the reports on the 15th of each month; and send off the manuscript soon enough for it to get here by the 19th or 20th of each month. One more thing; please alter the price in the announcement from 24 to 25 Sgr.[4] or 20 ggr.,[5] this latter price having been suggested by the booksellers as being more convenient. It is to be hoped that in Frankfurt you will take the lead in promoting the Revue, in which case you must charge to us the cost of sub-agents, delivery boys, etc. How many copies should I let you have?

Little that's new today over here. Struve and Heinzen are doing all they can to create a commotion and are, to the best of their ability, making asses of themselves and the German emigration. These two dictators, by the by, have fallen out, Struve having allegedly stolen an idea (?) of Heinzen's! I shall shortly be writing to Bruhn, to whom kindly give my regards, and shall then provide a detailed account of what is going on here.

Do you not require a correspondent over here? I could always send you prompt reports on the most important events in Parliament, which, in any case, promises to be interesting. I regularly follow the English movement for financial reform[6] and can keep you au courant. In the next day or two I shall send you a sample article and you could then let me know at your convenience whether you would like to have my letters and what you would give for them. Here in England one has got to have something with which to pay for one's steaks and beer.

The young communist who has installed himself chez Marx is called Henry Edward Guy Fawkes. He was born on the anniversary of the Gun Powder Plot, 5th Nov., and for that reason has been named Guy Fawkes.[7] Just now the little fellow is getting on everyone's nerves with his bawling; however, he will no doubt become more reasonable in due course.

All your acquaintances send their kind regards.

With cordial regards,

Yours

C. Schramm

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Announcement of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue' (The Neue Deutsche Zeitung, edited by Weydemeyer, carried it in Nos. 14, 23 and 31, 16 and 26 January and 5 February 1850).
  2. ↑ The Kölnische Zeitung published the announcement in the supplement to No. 24, 27 January 1850.
  3. ↑ Marx's intention to enlist Joseph Weydemeyer as a regular contributor to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue was never realised. About mid-January Weydemeyer wrote his first article 'From South Germany' but it was not published in the first issue of the Revue owing to lack of space, and later lost its topical interest.
  4. ↑ silver groschen
  5. ↑ good groschen
  6. ↑ At the meeting on 13 August 1849 in the London Drury Lane Theatre of the National Association for Parliamentary and Financial Reform (founded by the bourgeois radicals in 1849 with the aim of achieving a democratic electoral system and changes in the tax system) O'Connor advocated a union of the middle and working classes. His speech was supported by the Free Trader Thomas Thompson.
  7. ↑ Marx's son Heinrich Guido was nicknamed Fawksy by the family because he was born on 5 November 1849, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The conspirators, Guy Fawkes among them, wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and James I on 5 November. In Britain this anniversary is celebrated with fireworks.